Colorado 102, Rio Grande Valley 79

DENVER, Jan. 20 – The Colorado 14ers used a 71-point second half to rout the Rio Grande Valley Vipers 102-79 at the Broomfield Event Center on Sunday night.

Rio Grande Valley (10-13) took a 38-31 lead into the locker room at halftime after relying on its tough defense to stop the 14ers. Colorado (12-9) countered in the final two quarters by outscoring the Vipers by 30 points. Point guard Eddie Gill and forward Elton Brown led the 14ers with 16 points apiece as six Colorado players scored in double figures. Gill went scoreless in the game's first half.

“We came out of the locker room energized, we played good defense, and our shots fell,” said 14ers coach Joe Wolf.  “And we really did a nice job on the defensive end in the second half.”

Brown, who also grabbed 15 rebounds, and Brian Greene both had double-doubles on the night, Green with 15 points and 11 boards. The two combined for three of the 14ers' 10 blocked shots. It was Brown's league-leading 15th double-double of the season.

Point guard Kris Collins came off the Vipers bench to score a game-high 19 points in 26 minutes of action. Desmon Farmer added 18 for Rio Grande Valley, which is now three games under .500 and 3-6 in the Southwest Division.

At 12-9, Colorado trails only the Austin Toros in the division.

After the Vipers' lead shrank to 53-51 with 4:13 remaining in the third quarter, Colorado went on an 11-2 run in the period's final minutes. Greene and Gill then combined to score 26 fourth-quarter points as the 14ers simply outran Rio Grande Valley.

Gill also chipped in seven assists, half as many as the Vipers finished with. Colorado tallied 24 on the night.

The 14ers and Vipers square off again Monday night at 8:00 p.m. CT for game two of their back-to-back in Broomfield.